Wireless mobile communication technology uses various standards and protocols to transmit data between a base station and a wireless communication device. In 3GPP radio access networks (RANs), such as LTE or 5G systems, a base station may include Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node Bs (also commonly denoted as evolved Node Bs, enhanced Node Bs, eNodeBs, or eNBs) and/or Radio Network Controllers (RNCs) in an E-UTRAN, which communicate with a wireless communication device, known as user equipment (UE).
Upcoming 5G communication standard may considerably increase data traffic of mobile handhelds. That is, communication devices may demand higher dynamic power consumption to accommodate about ten fold increase in data reception and load processing load. In parallel with this, leakage current may also increase significantly due to lower transistor threshold voltage and reduced channel lengths. Thus, a combined jump in dynamic power as well as leakage power may result in an increase on energy density over a shrinking system-on-a-chip (SoC) area.
All these ingredients impose a severe constraint to chip designs as well as to the whole system. Intelligent thermal throttling methods may be applied to guarantee a sustainable operation of the device without initiating thermal runaway. The thermal runaway is set off by a cross coupling effect between dynamic power, leakage power and temperature. The total power, consisting of dynamic and leakage, initially contributes to the self-heating of the chip resulting in higher junction temperature. With rising junction temperature, the leakage power increases exponentially leading to a higher total power which in turn contributes to further heating.
Essentially a positive feedback loop is closed between leakage current and temperature. This constraint is nowadays so severe that it can easily be triggered in normal use-cases while the mobile device is still at mild thermal environment or device skin temperatures. As such, efficient thermal management systems are desired to overcome these challenges, which go beyond state-of-the art methods that rely solely on temperature sensors and electrical current monitors.